Winter Haven-based CenterState Banks Inc. has agreed to sell its personal trust business to Cypress Trust Co. Cypress Trust, an independent Florida-chartered trust company founded in 1996. Cypress Trust is headquartered in West Palm Beach and has a Vero Beach office at 4625 N. Florida A1A as well as offices in Naples and Winter Haven.(Photo: NOSUA/GETTY IMAGES/iSTOCKPHOTO)

VERO BEACH — CenterState Banks Inc. has agreed to sell its personal trust business to Cypress Trust Co., the latter company announced Monday.

Cypress Trust, an independent Florida-chartered trust company founded in 1996 by Chairman and CEO Jay Chigurupati, is headquartered in West Palm Beach, with a Vero Beach office at 4625 N. State Road A1A, as well as offices in Naples and Winter Haven.

Chigurupati said Cypress Trust is paying a premium of “a few million dollars” to acquire about $120 million in assets, which will bring Cypress Trust’s portfolio to about $850 million.

About 15 percent of that portfolio is managed through the Vero Beach office, which services clients throughout the Treasure Coast, Chigurupati said.

Cypress Trust is a “profitable and growing organization," he said. "We really want to continue growing it in the state of Florida.”

CenterState's Trust Department team will join the staff of Cypress, a boutique corporate fiduciary that focuses exclusively on providing customized investment strategies, serving as a corporate trustee, personal representative or agent during estate settlement, and as an administrative trustee for clients already committed to an investment plan.

Cypress Trust is not a bank nor is it owned by a bank, so it does not offer checking or savings accounts, make loans, offer mortgages, issue credit cards or provide brokerage services.

CenterState, a publicly traded company, first entered the Treasure Coast market with a branch in downtown Vero Beach in June 2011.

CenterState Bank operates in 33 Florida counties and had 82 bank offices as of Sept. 30.

One of its four current Treasure Coast branches is the former main office in Stuart of Gulfstream Business Bank, which CenterState acquired in January 2014.

In deals announced in August, CenterState is in the process of acquiring Fort Pierce-based Harbor Community Bank, which has nearly $2.2 billion in assets, and Plant City-based Sunshine Bank, which has nearly $1 billion in assets.

Harbor has 46 branch offices in 19 Florida counties, including eight on the Treasure Coast.

When completed, those acquisitions will make CenterState the largest community banking company in Florida with about $10.1 billion in assets, $6.6 billion in loans and $8.1 billion in deposits.